This Family Has a Whole Different Concept of 'Vacation,' and It's Incredible

A family from Phoenix is spending their entire summer vacation traveling across the country to do household chores for strangers in need, and they're doing it all for free. No, we're not kidding.

While family road trips often get a bad rap, this family’s journey has become one of the most inspiring stories of the summer. The Mursets, a crew of two parents and six kids, have been painting, cleaning, mowing and organizing their way from Arizona to New York in a giant RV throughout July, and they couldn’t be happier about it.

For 20 days, the Mursets are swinging by 25 cities in the US, dropping by two households or community centers per stop, and spending hours doing whatever they can to improve the residence.

Gregg Murset, a financial planner turned tech entrepreneur, came up with the concept after he started a chore chart app for his kids that became a full-time business, and he wanted to capitalize on the idea to help his kids learn an even greater lesson.

“Really, the idea for this summer was kind of a natural extension of what we do with the website, and that’s teach kids work ethic, and responsibility and giving back,” Murset tells Ellen’s Good News. “We picked a few charities and asked them to line up families who would benefit by us stopping by and just doing typical household chores for them. Yesterday, we were in New York, we went to the Bronx and helped a mom with three boys whose oldest is autistic. They were just an amazing family but they struggled, so we painted the hallways, doors and the trim of the house."

He adds, "Earlier in the day, we were in New Jersey, and we stopped by the home of a single mom who had cancer. We helped her organize the garage, which was a big mess, and set up a playroom for her little girl.”

Wherever they go, the Mursets will do pretty much anything to assist the people they visit. They've cleaned toilets, stacked wood, rearranged furniture and even cooked up 100 burritos one morning when they visited two Ronald McDonald Houses.

Considering this isn’t the traditional trip to Disney most kids look forward to during the summer, Murset’s children, who range in age from 7 to 16, have graciously taken on the assignment. He says they initially thought he was crazy when he “dropped the bomb” on them, but they've since come around.

“When we started reading stories about the families, they saw the vision,” Murset notes. “Now, they’re all on board.”

In fact, the most impactful part of the journey so far for Greg has been watching his kids understand the value of their efforts.

“The kids are opening their eyes to see that the world is bigger than just them,” Murset observes. “That was one of my goals specifically. I wanted them to understand the world’s a bigger place.”

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